Page 62 of Caught Stealing

“Earth to Holden?”

I blink up at him, realizing my mind went off in another world without answering him.

“Sorry, I didn’t get much sleep,” I tell him. And it’s not exactly a lie. “Let’s just say I wouldn’t recommend passing out on one of those pool loungers. They might look comfortable, but I can assure you, they are not.”

Not unless you have a six-foot-two, muscled baseball player to use as a pillow.

A small smirk curls his mouth up at the corner and he steps back. “You were pretty fucked up last night.”

Except I wasn’t. At least not by alcohol.

“Yeah, I guess,” I say with a forced laugh.

“Probably a good thing you laid off the booze today.”

That was the intention, though God only knows our bristly pal Phoenix is close to driving me to it anyway. Which he very well might before the night is over. Between the magnitude of what happened last night and his avoidance of the events altogether, the odds aren’t in my favor.

I blow out a sigh and nod before we head downstairs, ready to head out for our last night here. It’s supposed to be lowkey—grabbing dinner down at the boardwalk—seeing as no one wants to be hungover off their ass for the drive back to Phoenix’s parents in Nashville.

The other guys are already waiting outside by the cars when Kason and I step out of the house, minus Theo.

That’s when I get my first glimpse of Phoenix in nearly twelve hours.

His attention is thoroughly fixated on his phone while he leans against the Jeep, but I can tell from the rigid set of his shoulders, he knows I’m standing here. He can feel me, just like I can feel him. The only difference is, he’s choosing to ignore it.

Ignore me.

Ignore everything happening between us.

My teeth sink into my cheek, biting back the irritation growing inside me like a cancer, and I force myself to glance away. Getting torn up about shit like this isn’t me. If Phoenix wants to pretend it never happened, I shouldn’t care. It shouldn’t matter to me.

And yet it does.

I can feel this shift happening in the way he looks at me. How it lingers when I catch his gaze, and not only the heat from this insane lust, but also the emotion I see in it too. The unexplainable connection that truly makes no sense when I try to think about it logically.

As vexing as it might be, this thing with Phoenix defies everything I’ve known.

Theo draws my attention away easily enough when he comes barreling out of the house a few seconds later, slightly out of breath and full of energy. Then again, he’s the only one not sporting a massive hangover today. I’m sure he still had one helluva headache last night, though, seeing as he was both DD out at the bar and then lifeguard once we got home— making sure none of our dumb, intoxicated asses drowned in the pool.

“Dinnertime,” he says, a chipper spring to his step as he pulls open the Bronco’s driver-side door. “Autobots, roll out.”

The rest of the guys start piling into the cars, all opting to hop in whatever vehicle we made the drive down to Florida in…except Phoenix. He’s getting in Theo’s Bronco rather than jumping back in the Jeep with me, Noah, and Kason, apparently taking the extra step to ensure he puts as much distance between us as possible.

And I don’t miss the glare he aims at me before he slams the door behind him, either.

Kason must notice too, because he glances my way and hitches up a questioning brow. “What happened this morning to make him so pissed at you?”

You mean besides him spending the night fucking me clear into next week, only to wake up with a head full of regrets?

“You know him better than I do,” is all I say before throwing the Jeep into reverse.

I’d have no problem admitting what happened last night to Kason, and if this were any other situation, I probably would have here and now. But I don’t have to be intimately familiar with Phoenix to know it’s a terrible idea. Hell if I’m gonna give him another reason to hate me.

Not when I’m already dying for him to stop.

“Remind me again how I got talked into this?” Phoenix shouts over the pop music as he stands on the back deck of the boat, strapped into a giant harness.

“Because we’re friends with a bunch of jackasses,” Theo reminds him from where he’s lounged on one of the bench seats.

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